Air conveyors are commonly used for the rapid transport of large numbers of articles, such as plastic articles, between workstations. A typical air conveyor for conveying plastic bottles includes a pair of flanges or guides, positioned apart from one another to form an elongated slot. The flanges are commonly covered by a top wall and laterally spaced side walls to form a channel having an inverted U-shaped configuration. A series of louvers positioned on top or the sides of the channel direct pressurized air from a plenum against the articles being conveyed. The force of the pressured air propels the objects along the conveyance track defined by the flanges.
For handling purposes, plastic preforms, bottles and containers are often formed with annular rims positioned below their neck finish, which may be a threaded collar designed to receive a screw cap. When transported by an air conveyor, the neck finish extends upwardly through the slot formed between the flanges with their annular rims overlying the spaced flanges. In this manner, the bottles or containers are suspended from the flanges by their annular rims.
In practice, an air conveyor may need periodic cleaning and maintenance to ensure smooth, uninterrupted passage of objects along the track. For example, the track of the air conveyor may need to be cleaned to remove any dust or debris that has accumulated on the track. As another example, the track may be lubricated to reduce friction between the track and the objects being conveyed. In either case, cleaning and maintenance is often performed in practice by shutting the air conveyor line down and having operators manually service the line. While this provides a thorough approach to servicing the line, the cost of taking the line out of service and the amount of labor required can be significant.